In 1860, a young lithographer named Milton Bradley invented a game he called The Checkered Game of Life. Bradley intended the game to “forcibly impress upon the minds of youth, the great moral principles of vice and virtue.”

Players who landed on squares labeled Honesty, Bravery, or Success, ended in Happy Old Age. Players who landed on the squares labeled Poverty, Idleness, or Disgrace ended in Ruin, or perhaps, Suicide.

Such squares of vice and virtue do not exist on today’s version of the game we know as LIFE. What happened?

In 1959, the Milton Bradley toy company introduced a new version of The Game of Life to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. The object of the game was now to make the most money.

The game of LIFE made Bradley a wealthy man, and do you know what he did when he made his fortune?

He decided that the key to success for poor children was a kindergarten education, particularly learning through art, and devoted his life to creating tools to help children. He set up a manufacturing plant to make crayons, watercolor paints, colored paper, and flashcards.

That venture earned him little money at all, yet in his old age he considered his greatest accomplishment the opportunities he had created for young children.

It should be noted that Bradley was able to create those opportunities because he first became financially successful.

So what constitutes success?

Is it becoming financially independent, or is it being of service to others?

How do you define success?